Illinois 8th graders earn high marks on writing test
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“I think that this is some very good news for Illinois, especially when you look at how we fare against the bigger states,” said Matt Vanover, spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Education.
The NAEP writing test was administered in 2007 to a sampling of students including 139,900 8th graders and 27,900 12th graders.
In [...]
Schools minister heckled at teachers conference for backing large class sizes
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A schools minister was yesterday heckled by teachers after he backed larger class sizes and suggested that it could be “perfectly acceptable” to teach maths to pupils in classes of up to 70.Jim Knight, was jeered at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers’ annual conference in Torquay after using his speech to advocate teaching classes [...]
Console central
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There is a level of excitement in year 6 classroom at Bishop John Robinson School in Thamesmead, south-east London, that is not normally associated with maths first thing on a Monday morning. The buzz is punctuated by the tinny tones of Nintendo DS handheld games consoles being started up, a sound rising briefly like a [...]
Testing time for courses on managing money
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Topping the league tables is an important consideration for most schools, so would more teach personal finance if it resulted in accredited qualification that contributed to league table scores?At present, financial education is not obligatory and is not assessed within schools. The Personal Finance Education Group (Pfeg) believes schools should not be too hung up [...]
Children have celebrity rammed down their throats says professor
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Adults are to blame for a decline in children’s happiness because they control a commercial world which “rams celebrity down children’s throats”, according to the head of an inquiry into primary education.There is widespread anxiety among adults about a perceived loss of innocence among children, but most children have a more optimistic outlook on their [...]
Software books and equipment reviews
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HyperwordsBrowser plug-in (PC, Mac, Linux)cross-curricularManufacturer: Firefoxhyperwords.netPrice: FreeHyperwords is a Firefox browser plug-in that takes all the words you encounter on the internet and makes each one interactive. Working in Firefox, you can use your mouse to click on any word or phrase to discover more. Think how useful that can be to the digital kids [...]
Playnation
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It’s hard to beat spontaneous applause, particularly from 10- and 11-year-olds you have been making challenging demands of all day. That is what Marion Reilly, a primary ICT adviser, got after a day with a year 5 and 6 class from Malmesbury primary school, in London’s East End. They had been making maze games, similar [...]
Keep Big Brother out of the classroom says union
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The new president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) will warn of an impending Orwellian education system at the first day of the union’s annual conference in Torquay today.Targets, testing, league tables, inspections and increasing use of camera surveillance in classrooms could lead to “Big Brother watching over schools in the next five [...]
Finance lessons edged out by time deficit
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Parents brought up in the days when there were student grants and money was a dirty word may be a little worried by the way the workaday world of business and finance seems to be creeping into their children’s education. With an extra E for economics being added to the confusing subject area known as [...]
Bid for respect could kill off diplomas
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Diplomas are “probably the best chance in a generation to break out of a two-tier divide”, the education secretary, Ed Balls, told the Association of School and College Leaders’ annual conference. Many in the audience might have been forgiven for muttering that the “best chance” came and went just before the last election. That was [...]
